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Classical Music for Aficionados

I would like to start a thread, similar to Orpheus’ jazz site, for lovers of classical music.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
  Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.

I’ll start with a list of CDs.  Records to follow in a later post.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique.  Chesky  — Royal Phil. Orch.  Freccia, conductor.
Mahler:  Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev:  Scythian Suite et. al.  DG  — Chicago Symphony  Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1.  Chesky — London Symph. Orch.  Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova.  Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.

All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.


128x128rvpiano
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,513 posts
 
Are you using a good DAC?
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,513 posts
 
Jim,

I listened to both of your recommendations.
The Beethoven is a delightful taste of Viennese Classicism.
The Scriabin is wonderful.  It looks back to Chopin and forward to Rachmaninoff.
Thank you.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
I'm using a Audioquest  Red Dragonfly  which has great reviews and has always been very good  for me .
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
2,513 posts
 
Has the SQ improved yet with IDAGIO?
jim204
881 posts
 
RV   i am glad you enjoyed my recommendations as I have been listening to them a lot especially the Scriabin . You are so right with your observation of Chopin and Rachmaninov because I think his earlier pieces are every bit as good as Chopin's, epecially the Mazurkas that he composed. Did you know that Scriabin was in the same classes as Rachmaninov and Joseph Lhevinne, in fact he nearly ruined his hands for good because he was trying to become as good as Lhevinne especially in octave playing. Lhevinne and Rachmaninov had huge hands and Scriabin had very small hands and he damaged them very seriously but eventually got them to work properly again.Len   You are saying about laptops yes you can get really good sound especially from Apples so if you don't want to go the bespoke way get an i Pad and I think you could be very happy with it. A few years ago I did go the bespoke way and built myself a really high quallity but admittedly very expensive one with hand made Linear power supplies Femto USB and Network cards and loads of other things designed just to get the best quallity from a computer. This machine is so good that I have ripped all my CDs to Solid State Hard Drives . After I did that and listened to it for a few weeks from my ripped CDs I then sold my CD player which was a Gryphon Mikado Signature because the difference was so profound, it is so good and dare I say sounds very analogue with no digital nasties.
The Mikado now resides in a house in South Korea with a very nice wee man. If there is any chance that you could even beg a loan of someones Pad then please do so before you fully commit but I am sure you would get sustantially better sound than now because if I am anyone to go by all I can say is Idagio can sound stunning on my set up. Good luck my friend.
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